The formalities to impress you.
A 32 year old Iranian-American artist and activist, I have been involved in community organizing, independent media production and distribution for over a decade. As a teenager in Gainesville, Florida, I co-founded Free Radio Gainesville, a low-power community radio station, and was centrally involved in building the Civic Media Center, a resource center housing thousands of independent and self-produced books and videos. I have been a part of several independent radio and video projects with the Prometheus Radio Project, Paper Tiger TV, the Independent Media Center, Scribe Video Center, Termite TV Video Collective, the Asian Arts Initiative and the Media Mobilizing Project.
In 2007 I graduated from the MFA program in Film and Media Arts at Temple University where I completed my thesis film “Cusps.” I am interested in creating work that is political without being polemical, an alternative to Hollywood without being elite or isolating, and aesthetically and techincally advanced without the obsession with the concept of the masterpiece.
I have served on the board of PIFVA (the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association) and the Black Lily Film and Music Festival. I have also served as a grants review panelist for community arts centers funding for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, as a juror for the Next Frame Film Festival, the Dereck Freeze Screenwriting Competition, and the University Film and Video Association’s Carole Fielding Student Award.
I worked for several years as an instructor at Temple teaching: Media Arts I & II, Film and Video Analysis, International Cinema and Videography. For the last 2.5 years I worked as the Development Director at Bread & Roses Community Fund.
The more real stuff.
I recently made a big decision to focus my efforts on launching an independent film screening series into a full fledged sustainable business. You can read about my adventures in entrepreneurship on my blog.
Sometimes I remember to make my own work. You can read about my current film projects here.
And if you’d like to know the random thoughts that pass through my head during the day in 140 characters or less, you can follow me on twitter.
The only thing that makes me happier than screening independent films is cooking dinner for people I love. I’m kind of a Persian Martha Stewart. With tattoos.
I’m a recovering child of work-a-holics. To intercept this habit pattern I do vipassana meditation, listen to music, secretly talk to trees, and get lost in novels.
